African American Voters Came Out Against Discriminatory Amendment After Overhearing ‘Caucasian’ Argu

[Ian David]

African American Voters Came Out Against Discriminatory Amendment After Overhearing ‘Caucasian’ Argument

Jodie Brunstetter’s comments that the “Caucasian” race would benefit from North Carolina’s Amendment 1 initiative — a constitutional measure prohibiting same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships — came in an attempt to persuade another white woman to support the effort, but instead convinced two African American voters to oppose it, ThinkProgress has learned.

Brunstetter is the wife of North Carolina Sen. Peter Brunstetter (R), who voted in favor of the measure.

“She said the white race is diminishing and I asked her why that alarmed her and that’s when she said, you know, that white people had founded this country. She of course made no mention of the fact that there were people already here,” Kate Maloy, the woman to whom Brunstetter made the remarks, said in a phone interview this morning.

Maloy claims she came to the polls to urge voters to oppose the measure, but soon found herself in a 30 minute conversation with the senator’s wife, who was passing out flyers in favor of the amendment. “It just became clear to me that she couldn’t hear anything I said. She wasn’t willing to consider one word out of my mouth,” Maloy said. Brunstetter mentioned race half way through the discussion. “She said the white race is diminishing and I asked her why that alarmed her and that’s when she said, you know, that ‘white people had founded this country.’”

Brunstetter made her argument within earshot of an African American poll worker. “He was standing there with his back to us. Now, I was kind of watching him out of the corner of my eye because, you know when she started talking about the Caucasian race diminishing, I saw his whole body, he threw his head back and his mouth came open and he could not believe what he was hearing,” Maloy said and noted — with some degree of satisfaction — that Brunstetter’s remarks convinced two African American women to oppose the measure:

More:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/03/476040/brunstetter-caucasian-2/

[RobertEarl]

1. Whites are responsible

... they have messed up a lot of things. Not that we didn't get lots of help.

And to further screw down to the bottom of things, it is the white male numerical minority population of human beings that have really made a mess of things.

We can hardly control ourselves. It takes women to keep us from totally destroying the planet and each other, but we may yet overcome!

[alfredo]

2. knr